Clements skips Dubai Racing Carnival, but stays World Cup course
The Clements/Singh team recently nominated Countofmontecristo (pictured), Gingerella, Eye Guy and Yabadabadoo for four of the nine races at the Dubai World Cup (DWC) meeting at Meydan on March 28.
As a prelude, Clements said he had also been invited to participate in the lead-up races during the Carnival, which had been underway since January 2 and culminates with DWC night, the world's richest single day of racing with a total purse of US$35 million (S$47 million) up for grabs.
Originally, he and Singh thought the Carnival would be a good entry-level platform to DWC while also acting as both a form of acclimatisation and a gauge on how they stack up against the international line-up.
But even though Countofmontecristo ran on for a creditable third to stablemate Bold Thruster (not nominated for DWC) in the Fortune Bowl, they are opting out of the Carnival while still keeping their hats in the ring for DWC. After momentarily leading in the Fortune Bowl, Gingerella weakened to eighth place.
"Joe has decided that he does not want to send his horses to race in the Carnival," said Clements.
"I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Dubai Racing Club for expediting our application and subsequent invitation for his horses to race in the Carnival.
"We hope that Countofmontecristo gets a slot to race in one of the races on World Cup night."
Even at the time of nominating the Singh quartet, Clements had all along said he would not hold his breath about gaining a ticket at an event which year in year out draws the best horses in the world, with Countofmontecristo on ratings (109) the only one with a very slim chance of sneaking in.
Countofmontecristo and Yabadabadoo are entered in both the US$6 million Group 1 Dubai Turf (1800m) and US$1.5 million Group 2 Godolphin Mile (1600m) on dirt, while Eye Guy and Gingerella have been nominated for both sprint features, the US$2.5 million Group 1 Dubai Golden Shaheen (1200m) on dirt – which Singapore icon Rocket Man famously won in 2011 – and US$2 million Group 1 Al Quoz Sprint (1200m) on turf.
